Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
5. Muslim women
~ 74 ~
62. At-Tirmidhi,
Sahih, Abwab al-Manaqib,
13/257.
63.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
(1984), 1/167.
TWO REMARKABLE WOMEN
When the Judaic era was drawing to a close, a
woman had to be singled out who would in every
way be fit to become the mother of one so
miraculous in nature as the Prophet Jesus, upon
whom be peace. God had ordained that the final
prophet of the Jewish people was to be born
without a father: the character of his mother had,
therefore, to be one of irreproachable innocence and
chastity. Mary, who subsequently became known as
the Virgin Mary, was found to have lived her life
according to this exacting standard, and, by her
extraordinary chastity, had proved herself fit to be
chosen as the mother of Jesus.
In one of the most authentic collections of the
hadith
by Bukhari, the Prophet is recorded as saying, “The
best woman out of all of them (the Jewish people)
was Mary (mother of Jesus), the daughter of ‘Imran,
and the best woman out of all of my own people
was Khadijah bint Khuwaylid.”
64
(This saying was
